The University of Szeged Faculty of Law and Political Sciences hosted the second event of IFAT’s dedicated season titled “The 70-year-old history of NATO and Hungary’s 20 year-old history in the Alliance” within the framework of the ‘Ask the Expert’ foreign policy-themed discussion series. The invited panelists included Gergely Varga, PhD, senior research fellow at IFAT, Péter Stepper, PhD, researcher at Antall József Knowledge Centre, and Gábor Csizmazia, assistant research fellow at the American Studies Research Institute of the National University of Public Service. The event was moderated by András Hárs, dr.jur., assistant research fellow at the the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of the University of Szeged.
The panel discussion started with the introduction of the research fields of each expert, followed by the questions of the audience and the moderator. The participants elaborated on the role of the NATO Partnership for Peace, Ukraine’s recent political challenges and the state of Georgia and the Western Balkans, as well as Hungary’s leading role in the Baltic Air Policing mission. Some questions had been prepared for the audience in advance, related to the advantages of Hungary’s NATO membership and its self-defense capabilities.
The researchers argued for the beneficial impact of the NATO membership on the security of the members, while stating that the youth is still not aware of the perception of security. Nevertheless, the current political will and the available resources imply an aspiration for a greater role in the NATO.
This roundtable was part of IFAT’s NATO 70/20 event series, which commemorates the founding of NATO in 1949 and Hungary’s accession to the alliance in 1999.